


Moonlight Confessions

by CaptainCoffee



Category: Star Trek Voyager
Genre: F/M, a coda to Coda, a touch of angst with a wonderfully happy ending, what REALLY happened on that moonlight sail
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-12 05:42:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29504985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainCoffee/pseuds/CaptainCoffee
Summary: On a moonlight sail after a near-death experience, Kathryn does some reevaluating...
Relationships: Chakotay/Kathryn Janeway
Comments: 13
Kudos: 56





	Moonlight Confessions

* * *

“I saw you.”

“What?”

Chakotay looked up from refilling their champagne glasses with a slightly puzzled look on his face.

They had both been unusually quiet up to now, Kathryn silent and pensive, her mind full of thoughts about her experience; Chakotay unbothered by her silence, seeming content just to be in her presence.

“In one of my ‘hallucinations’”, she murmured. “I died on the planet where our shuttle crashed. And... I saw you.”

She took a shaky breath.

“You were... holding me, crying, begging me to breathe.”

Feeling a tear begin to creep down her cheek, she stopped a moment to brush it away.

“It may not have been real Chakotay, but I couldn’t help wondering if...” 

“If that’s how I would react if anything really happened to you”, Chakotay finished for her.

“Yes”, she nodded slowly.

“It is. I don’t know what I’d do if I ever lost you”, he answered softly.

Kathryn smiled tearily, gently laying a hand over his.

“I do”, she whispered.

  
“Even after everything that happened, I saw you rise up and be the best First Officer I could possibly ask for. And that just proved something to me.”

Chakotay looked deep into her eyes, as if searching for something.

“And what’s that?”

“Do you remember what you once told me? That we shouldn’t sacrifice the present for a future that may never happen?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I don’t want to sacrifice our present anymore. I was always so...afraid. Afraid that if we-if  _I_ let myself indulge our personal feelings that we’d lose our professionalism, our objectivity. I kept promising myself that someday, sometime, maybe when we got back to Earth or-“

She broke off, realizing she had begun to babble.

Chakotay took both of her hands in his, calming her, steadying her.

“Kathryn, what exactly are you saying?”

“Today just made me realize how fragile life is. How temporary. And that maybe- maybe there’s no time for pushing away feelings.”

With a deep breath, she took her chance.

“I love you Chakotay.”

For a long moment, he simply looked at her.

“I’m afraid that might be the champagne talking...” he finally murmured, looking slightly away.

Kathryn knew he was giving her a way out.

She knew as well as he did that this was very unlike her- she was never someone who admitted her feelings easily, and she had pushed him away for so long.

But there was just something about a near-death experience that made one start to reevaluate things.

She captured his face in her hands, gently forcing his eyes to meet hers.

“I assure you it isn’t. I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to admit it. I just hope... I’m not too late.”

Chakotay smiled his beautiful smile.

“Kathryn, I loved you from the very first moment I saw you. And I’ve never stopped. I never will. But are you sure?”

She nodded, inching her face closer to his.

“Yes. I know there are probably a million reasons why we shouldn’t, but I just can’t find it in myself to care very much about them anymore. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, no matter what. I love you.”

“And I love you.”

Chakotay closed the last breath of space remaining between them, and Kathryn surrendered to his lips, feeling truly, amazingly, wonderfully  _ alive. _


End file.
